The importance of simplicity to your business

When the success of a business rests on your shoulders, it can feel like every decision you make is a labyrinth of options stalked by minotaurs of risk; unable to see round corners, you are nevertheless expected to be well-versed in a variety of complex and nebulous fields if you want to avoid being eaten alive.

For example:

Human Resources
You might want to hire some people to work for you. But how can you tell that the socially maladroit applicant with a unique smell isn’t secretly a pathologically diligent genius, or that the confident and ostensibly capable person sitting backwards on the chair like a cool guy isn’t secretly Patrick Bateman? Short answer: you can’t. There’s no simple answer, you just have to suck it and see (not literally; that would be a serious HR issue.)

Cash Flow
Clients are dodging your invoices. Suppliers are threatening to break your business-legs with a lawsuit. How on earth do you maintain the finely balanced ecosystem of payments in and out of your company without business grinding to a halt? Do you need a CFO, or a part-time financial consultant? If so, you’re back in the logistical minefield that is hiring someone, and in this instance hoping they won’t snaffle your funds into a bank account on a tropical island. Unfortunately, there is no simple solution.

Delegating
It can be hard to relinquish responsibility and let go of the “if you want something done right, do it yourself” mentality. But it can be equally hard to maintain a high level of strategic thinking if you’re getting bogged down in the nitty-gritty. Sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith and accept that Martin most likely won’t accidentally email your company’s tax returns to his aunt in Canada. Then again, it was Martin who accidentally set fire to the microwave…

Regulation and Compliance
Every industry has its own set of Kafkaesque regulation and compliance rules that are prone to change at a moment’s notice. Do you devote yet another chunk of your finite time to furiously studying them, slowly turning into The Shining’s Jack Torrance in the process? Or do you get fed up of replacing the doors you’ve destroyed and shell out for yet another consultant, becoming ever more reliant on their intricate understanding of the statutes that govern your business? Of course, there just isn’t a simple solution.

Currency Exchange
You need to make a payment to a supplier in a foreign country. You’ve had several phone calls from an impatient person with an intimidating accent. What is the best way to send them the money in their local currency? The exchange rate’s all over the place! Do you go into a bank and let them hammer you with impenetrable terms and conditions and unfavourable fees (while they offer bigger, more connected customers zero-fee transactions)? Or do you assemble a bevy of brokers who will scurry to undercut each other, then make their profits by lumping you with giant spread margins?

Fortunately, there is a simple solution.

At freemarket, we offer a relaxingly straightforward platform for international payments. Our terms and conditions are utterly transparent – a fixed 0.2% fee on all payments. Our P2P technology offers direct access to mid-market rates. And we place complete control of the platform in our client’s hands, helping them save up to 75% on their FX fees.

You don’t even need to talk to anyone (if you don’t want to); just log on, as and when you need to, and transact.

James is freemarket’s Chief Commercial Officer. He has a history of finding new ways to solve age-old financial challenges and was responsible for launching some of the first online money transfer and prepaid card initiatives in Europe.